Southern California Chess Federation
The Southern California Chess
Federation ran its eight-player state championship on the
weekends of July 13-14 and July 20-21 in Costa Mesa, about 50
miles south of Los Angeles. The new state champion is IM Melikset
Khachiyan, who won his first three games and led the tournament
all the way. Clear second a half-point behind was Los Angeles
Times chess columnist IM Jack Peters, the only one to defeat
Khachiyan.
Former state champion Cyrus Lakdawala suffered severe back pain
before the second weekend and could not muster the strength for
his usual comeback. His games against Levon Altounian and Ron
Hermansen were agreed drawn without play. Nevertheless, he tied
for third place with newcomer (to California!) Whee Ky Ma, who
won all three of his games on the second weekend.
The SCCF hopes to make next summer's championship, the 15th in
the series, an international title tournament. Plans call for
adding two more players to fulfill the requirements for titled
players and foreigners.
All games from the tournament are available here in PGN format.
Final Standings
Southern California Invitational Championship
July 13-21, 2002
Costa Mesa, CA
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 Khachiyan,Melikset 2477 * 0 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 5.5/7
2 Peters,Jack 2456 1 * ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 5.0/7
3 Lakdawala,Cyrus 2435 ½ ½ * 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 4.0/7 14.00
4 Ma,Whee Ky 2294 0 ½ 0 * 1 ½ 1 1 4.0/7 10.75
5 Casella,Michael 2265 0 ½ ½ 0 * ½ 1 1 3.5/7
6 Altounian,Levon 2448 0 0 ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 2.5/7 7.50
7 Hermansen,Ron 2224 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ * 1 2.5/7 6.75
8 Small,Gregg 2245 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 * 1.0/7
Average elo: 2320 Category: 3